These few words pretty much describes the past 7 days. Regardless of choice of words and exclamations, 2011 is definitely off to a really interesting start for Ishka Designs. Can we scream planning and vision ladies and gentlemen?!! Yes, over and over again. A lot of the ground work for these past few days were laid in 2010 and excitingly enough quite a bit of it has come to fruition all at once. But without letting too much out of the bag, I just want to give a really tight synopsis of what's been going on:

having fun during a photoshoot back in 2009

Self-portrait. NB having fun on the shoot too

1. Friday before last and for the 1st time ever, we had one of our projects photographed and styled by an outside team. What an experience! While we thought we could just kick back and watch the magic unfold, the OCD in us couldn't help but jump in...days before and during. Needless to say, we are waiting with baited breath to see the end results...

2. Screen time baby! We did our first live camera action interview on location talking about our favourite subjects: design, business, and photography. I've seen myself on-screen before back in the days when I moved around on-stage pretending to be a dancer, but NB, always behind the camera, was a bit apprehensive despite the crew's constant comforting praises. We had a blast with the host and film crew though and enjoyed playing dress up too. OK, so at least I did :) And despite NB being very under the weather, we managed to have not only ourselves looking sparkly and fresh in time for the early morning shoot, but the office too.

Sneak Peak at the office showing flowers from the Supermarket used for the shoot

3. If you haven't heard by now, you must be living under a rock! We are in the running, as in a top 5 nominee, for Best Overseas Jamaican Blog in the 1st ever Jamaican Blog Awards! I know, I know... it's not the Nobel Prize, but it's definitely an incentive for folks like us to keep on blogging. We've been "campaigning" like crazy on twitter and facebook for what seems like an eternity, but it really was just the past two or so weeks. I can't imagine how a real electoral campaign must feel cause not only are we tired, but being the humble-ish people we think we are, weeks of begging for votes just seemed so unnatural and a tad uncomfortable. Anyhow, the winner will be announced tomorrow at the awards ceremony at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston Jamaica. So riding the wave of possibility and positivity, I've asked my family to represent Ishka Designs...JUST IN CASE!!! Would've been cool for us to actually be there, but time is just not permitting...

4. Oh yeah, we still had to do interior design stuff too. We are currently juggling 3 major projects, one of which is pretty new.

Well, that's it for our 7 day review. We can't wait to share the end-results of all 4 experiences, so stay tuned!

Inside IDI

Not just a behind-the-scenes look at Ishka Designs' projects and latest news, Inside IDI brings our readers further into the discerning world of Anishka and Niya.

Read the duo's visually stunning interviews with the artists, chefs and entrepreneurs that inspire, stimulate and appear in their projects, and catch sight of their latest finds, custom builds and secret/now-not-so-secret haunts.